Europe/450mm

Europe Taking
its Expertise in 450mm Equipment and Materials Manufacturing to Asia and the U.S.

By Rania Georgoutsakou, SEMI Europe

A February 7 workshop
organized at imec (Leuven, Belgium) focused on the opportunities offered to
European equipment and material suppliers by investing in the 450mm transition — and how small and medium
companies in particular can increase their visibility towards a global customer
base.

The event was
organized as part of Bridge450, an EU-funded project that links European equipment and materials suppliers with foundries
and IDMs worldwide, looking to promote Europe’s strengths in 450mm and identify
the technology gaps where further work is needed.

Presenting first, Mike Bryant, CTO of Future
Horizons, said that even though the 450mm transition has been delayed, most of
the work that has already been done has not been wasted. Whereas in the past
there was an evolution between technology nodes, today there is a revolution at
every new node requiring new processing techniques. So even if 300mm remains
the sole platform, there are still significant development costs involved and
Europe’s investment in 450 technology is not lost.

Alain Jarre, CEO of
Recif Technologies, confirmed that the payback in 450mm is already there: his
company has improved their 300mm tool by a factor of 3 in the current node. He
encouraged smaller companies to participate to EU funding calls — the added value of
joining projects is not the actual funding, but rather the partnerships that are
formed between companies, the cooperation and the visibility towards potential
business partners. The purpose of Bridge450 is to place smaller companies on
the global 450mm suppliers map, by mapping the expertise of all companies
across the value chain.

Hans Lebon, senior vice
president for Fab and Process Step Development at imec suggested that the transition to 450mm is not a question of
whether the technology is available, but whether it will be cost effective and whether
device makers will invest. In his evaluation of the economics of scaling to
450mm, he argued that simply scaling the tool would not bring the expected cost
benefits, as die-based processing and the introduction of lithography are
increasing costs. Companies will therefore need to be increasingly innovative
and creative when developing their tools.

Malcolm Penn, CEO of Future Horizons, suggested
that as the semiconductor manufacturing industry has become more mature, it is
time to introduce new business models and the introduction of 450mm requires
such a new model. Penn’s proposal: chipmakers should place an order and make a
down payment. If fabs do not make a commitment, equipment makers will not be
keen to invest significant amounts of money and time to develop 450mm tools.
Penn argued that the original rational for 450mm still stands and when the
economics makes sense the transition will take place.

About
Bridge450: Bridge 450 is a coordination and support action for 450mm
topics establishing a Bridge between European Equipment and Materials entities
and IDMs, foundries and entities worldwide.
It receives EU co-financing under the Objective FP7-ICT-2013-11 “An
action to develop a European strategy which addresses the challenges in
manufacturing for 450mm in dialogue with G450C and with the U.S., Korea and
Taiwan.” The members of Bridge450 are: ASM International
NV (Coordinator), Future Horizons, Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum
vzw, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung
E.V., Applied Materials Israel Ltd., RECIF Technologies, Artemis Control AG,
SEMI Europe Grenoble Office, M+W Germany GmbH and AIS Automation Dresden GmbH.